Accelerated nVidia Drivers for FreeBSD 293
zero0w writes "nVidia has released the official OpenGL accelerated driver set for FreeBSD 4.7 STABLE. Check out the nVidia Driver page for more detail. According to the page, this release should be considered as initial beta. So don't count on it to build a day-to-day production system, yet."
FreeBSD != Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
A shame to muddy a laudible effort such as BSD drivers with a couple of dumb (lazy?) errors. I can appreciate that much of the info may be common to both, but to explicitly ignore the fundamental differences is a bit of a shame.
Can I take one 2 Go? (Score:3, Insightful)
NOTE: GeForce2 Go and GeForce4 Go mobile processors are not supported in this driver. Please contact the notebook's manufacturer for graphics drivers for your notebook PC.
Sucks for my Dell Inspiron 8100. Anyone know if there is any way to set up drivers for the GeForce2Go?
Re:Source code... nVidia... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why have Nvidia done this? (Score:3, Insightful)
What is more interesting is the possibility that Nvidia are contracted to develop drivers for a company that is developing a product that will run a BSD variant. What better way for Nvidia to test their new drivers than allow a public beta.
Pure speculation though, we'll have to wait to see whether anything comes of this.
Re:Why (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:FreeBSD != Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
That said, free software proponents shouldn't pan Nvidia for distributing binary only drivers. They are in a competative field, and need to protect their IP (oh, I can see the flames coming now). The fact that they are supporting a free operating system at all (especially one with a relativly small installation base), is cause for celebration.
Linux drivers... (Score:3, Insightful)
I know the rpms don't work for either (8.2 under Mandrake 9.0 and 7.3 under RedHat 8.0) so as far as I can tell, you need to compile the source to get the driver working.
This however requires configured kernel source and if you don't have that for your current kernel i.e. you never installed the src rpm, you'll have to install, configure, compile the kernel, then compile the NVidia drivers then edit the XF86Config file to change the driver string!
Come on Nvidia, can't we have an automated driver? Please? Pretty please?
Re:FreeBSD != Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Petition (Score:2, Insightful)
Not only games! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:FreeBSD != Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
Common guys (Score:3, Insightful)
NetBSD (Score:3, Insightful)
=> Open-Source these drivers, please!
- Hubert
Re:FreeBSD != Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why have Nvidia done this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ATI... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Common guys (Score:2, Insightful)
Give me a kernel tainted with non-GPL code over a Windows kernel any day.
Re:FreeBSD != Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
Here's the thing --
And I wish GPL folks would get it through their heads.
When BSD style code is released out into the community, it is done so for the good of all. Good for EVERYONE. EVEN MICROSOFT. That means, when truely free source is given out. NOTHING is wanted in return. Sometimes a little credit where it's due, sometimes not even that. It's about making computers better, making software better, and in our own little way, trying to make the world better. It's not much, but it's what some of us can offer.
I'm not against someone making a profit, I'm not against someone coding for a living. I'm also not against the GPL and the idea that if you release code, you would like it to stay opened to the public for everyoen to always see the code.
But some of us don't even want THAT much. We're truely, selflessly, completely, and totally fine with giving something away and wanting NOTHING in return. Some people even do nice things and don't even take credit for having done them!
I know it's impossible for most of you to understand, but BSD is about a certain level of Freedom that is almost "too free" for the somewhat self righteous GPL crowd to understand.